


On Leaving the Nest

by empty_movement



Category: Shoujo Kakumei Utena | Revolutionary Girl Utena
Genre: Gen, Sea and Space Metaphors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-24 19:01:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22002895
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/empty_movement/pseuds/empty_movement
Summary: Kozue and Kanae bond over the shared responsibility of protecting a clutch of sea turtles on their journey out from the nest and into the sea. This was written by Giovanna for Ayu Ohseki, for the 2019 Empty Movement Discord's Secret Santa.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 11





	On Leaving the Nest

**Author's Note:**

  * For [AyuOhseki](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AyuOhseki/gifts).



“You didn’t bring any equipment?”  
“We don’t need it. We’re not digging a ditch, we just need to make sure it’s a clear path to the water.” Kozue knelt down, letting her hands guide her in the dim light as she patted smooth the sand between the roped off clutch of eggs and the quiet waves a few yards away. The beach was littered with stretches of seaweed, partially dried by the breeze into tangled knots of slippery and stiff. She gathered them into piles on either side of the path she was clearing.  
Kanae held her notebook close. It was a comfortably neat and tidy record of her observations: the quality of the sand, the light and noise levels around the beach, even the weather records for every day since the clutch had been found. She was sure it contained a better way to ensure the best odds for the hatchlings’ survival than what seemed to her, at best, the wild guesses of someone running on instinct. As far as she knew, Kozue had never once looked at the notebook herself.  
_Full moon. Thin intermittent cloud cover._  
“I told you they’d hatch tonight, you should have at least worn some jeans or something.”  
“My understanding of this project was that we were to observe, not interfere.”  
Kozue snickered, flicking an especially slimy piece of seaweed in Kanae’s general direction. “And you really believed that?”  
“No, I don’t suppose I did.” She risked a laugh as she slipped off her now ruined flats and knelt demurely in the wet sand, folding her skirt under her. Her nose wrinkled as the fabric became saturated with seawater beneath her knees.  
"Don't worry. It’ll be my fault we broke the rules, since you showed up entirely unprepared to help. Right?”  
“It sounds so manipulative when you put it that way.”  
“It is. But that’s fine. Everyone knew I was going to do this, and that's as good as permission."  
Kozue had been skipping classes after long afternoons of building enclosures, monitoring the dampness of the sand, and shooing away hungry birds had led to longer nights of...simply watching the nest. Eventually her absences became a challenge for even the most generous teacher to ignore. A vague gesture at discipline had been taken, but after she’d snuck out of detention to check on the eggs, it was decided that she would head a local conservation project that had been established probably an hour before she learned of it. As the administration was fond of saying, the school valued the independence and determination of its student body.  
Kozue had since recruited a few students to her cause, including Wakaba, a plucky and chronically helpful friend of Utena’s, but Kanae had approached her on her own. At first, Kozue was suspicious, naturally assuming Kanae had an agenda, given she was an upperclassman and Kozue was not. But over time...  
Kanae’s answering silence may as well have been an admission of co-conspiratorial guilt. She plucked gingerly at the tangles of seaweed where she knelt, seeming unaware or unable to help the fastidious impulse to keep wiping her hands on her skirt as she worked. When she finally spoke, her voice was quiet, as if someone might hear the rules bend and break with her words. "Perhaps we should take the seaweed and gather it up on either side… so they don't wander off in the wrong direction."  
"My, my. Now who wants to interfere?"  
"We are already interfering. Should we not let our interference ensure success?"  
Kozue stood and assessed their work. It was slowly coming into shape, a neat, tidy downhill crawl to the water. She couldn't see Kanae's embarrassed expression, but she knew it was there, the cost of going out on a limb, alone, when Kanae struggled so much just to climb the tree. Kozue smiled, wide enough for it to be visible in the dim light. "That's a good idea. Let's do that. But we'll need to undo it all before we leave."  
"Plausible deniability. I believe this is the first time that has worked to my advantage." Kanae spoke with just the right amount of bitterness to tell Kozue not to respond directly to it.  
"Well, it's making more work for us. The benefit all goes to the babies." Kozue gestured her chin toward the roped off mound. It was still, and silent, and yet the air around it felt electric, ready for something spectacular. "You… really care about them."  
"Of course. Why else would I have asked to help?" There was tentative laughter in voice, something wary of judgement but hopeful for recognition. "It's not their fault they were given such a treacherous start in life."  
"They're wild animals. You can't make it too easy for them, or they won't learn to survive. And you know that. That's why we're not just carrying them to the water."  
"I suppose… But would it truly be so bad to take one or two home… make somewhere safe for them? Would they be unhappy?" Kanae stared for a moment at the grit gathering under her nails. Somewhere along the line, she'd given up wiping her hands off on her skirt, and big handfuls of oceanic debris had begun to chip away at her manicure.  
"Raised in captivity? I don't know, some animals don't mind it. I think some probably like it. But that's not a choice we get to make today."  
"This little thing, what we're doing here tonight… Makes us as much their mothers as their biological one. She left them in a hole in the sand."  
"A carefully chosen one, with easy waves, just the right temperatures, and placed so a full moon would guide them home."  
"And yet, it’s us that came to see them off."  
A particularly hefty piece of seaweed was tossed to the others, and it made a vaguely sickening slopping noise to prelude Kozue's answer. "Let me guess, 'You'll never understand what mothers give up for their children until you are a mother yourself.'"  
"...Just about word for word."  
"Mine left my father when I was eight. I don’t know whether it was because of me. Probably not. But no one ever said anything one way or another. No one cared what I thought."  
Kanae stared for a long moment; Kozue's tone was thick with practiced nonchalance to cover a wound she was flaunting anyway. For Kanae's part… She wasn't quite sure how to put what was wrong with her relationship with her mother. It was something… But none of those things. "My mother never leaves father’s side. I cannot blame her for that. I know she loves me, in her own way, but…"  
"A wild animal and a captive animal."  
"Neither happy with their lot. That’s the difference, don’t you think? Animals don't bemoan their fate either way."  
"They're not given the choice. These hatchlings won't know what it's like being bred in captivity. They won't meet other turtles that were to give them a chance for envy or understanding or judging … they're just… turtles doing what they must to survive."  
"That’s it, isn’t it? Why you like animals so much."  
Kozue laughed, feeling the bitter air clear some, carried away not by the salty breeze but their own exhaustion with the topic lingering in the air. "You researched me before asking to join this little project?"  
"To be honest, I simply asked Miss Arisugawa about you. She had… a great deal to say."  
"You know, that could be considered an abuse of power."  
"Could it? Do you think so?" Kanae asked quickly, clearly embarrassed now by something she hadn’t considered that way. "I… you're right. I apologize."  
"Relax! I'm not mad. It's what I'd have done." Kozue's widening grin was audible as she spoke. "I guess that might not make you feel better, though."  
Kanae laughed now also, the sound strange to her, much like everything else about being around this peculiar young woman. "Would it be strange to say that it does? I don’t think it would necessarily be a bad thing to be more like you."  
"Kanae Ohtori. Are you trying to compliment me?"  
"....and you have such lovely hair."  
"Now you're just messing with me."  
"Perhaps a little."  
They had begun to hit the wet sand, the water tickling at their feet every few waves when more eager swells hit the beach. This cued a flurry of activity to finish their work in focused silence, and a couple minutes later they were kneeling just next to the nest, their handiwork laid out before them: a tidy, wide path to the water, free of debris and with a wall of seaweed inconvenient enough for little crabs and other such dangers to avoid it.  
Kozue watched the nest as she had many nights already, and Kanae left her to her watch as she jotted notes into her book. It was a flurry of writing, enough that finally Kozue spoke up.  
"You're not writing everything we did are you?"  
"Oh it's all on its own page. I promise, it won't be in the official record. So to speak. This is just for us."  
"Good. The official record has enough of my misbehaving in it."  
Kanae looked at the cracks forming in the moist stand. "I don’t think this is misbehaving. This is… a kindness."  
If Kozue could sound flustered, she would have as she spoke. "Thanks. But… Don't get too hopeful for my immortal soul just yet." She rummaged about in her pack and produced from it a bottle that she opened with a sudden haste as the cracks over the nest widened and spread. A loud pop startled Kanae, but not so much that she didn't immediately pick the cork up from where it landed nearby.  
"Champagne? You… Really did think of everything."  
"I didn't bring glasses. So be careful when you drink or it'll foam up and spill." She passed Kanae the bottle after an exploratory taste of her own. The effervescence relieved her parched throat, leaving the taste of tart apples to complement the briny air. "One more thing. Later you have to help me screw back in the lights along the road. Before you got here I undid four of them so they wouldn't mistake them for the moon. That's how most hatchlings die on beaches in cities."  
"Like I said. You really did think of everything." Kanae gestured the bottle as if to toast her, then sipped delicately as the first handful of little hatchlings began to break through the sand. The opening salvo of eager, overgrown flippers sent little flecks of sand up into the air, and within moments the cracked surface of the nest gave way to a writhing mob of frenzied little creatures. They climbed over and around each other, setting themselves quickly on the path made for them, guided by the full moon and the gentle slope of smooth sand.  
Kozue leaned closer, barely able to contain eager squeaks of encouragement. Kanae felt her belly warm over with alcohol, and emboldened by the sensation for its own sake, she found her arms wrapping around Kozue's smaller frame. Someone laughed softly, and then Kozue hugged back.  
"Congratulations, mother."  
"Congratulations."


End file.
